Environmental politics

The latest trail through the land dispute involving the Ardoch Algonquins has more potholes than a downtown street. No matter which way you turn, peril awaits.

This week Bob Lovelace, speaking for the Algonquins, said the natives will fight the plans of a mining company, Frontenac Ventures, to look for uranium on land near Pine Lake. Citing the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Algonquins claim the land as their own and say they have the right to throw people off it if they don't want them there.

To support their cause, the natives are playing the environmental card, suggesting radiation will poison the area's watershed if uranium in the bedrock is disturbed. Their outrage, however, rings hollow. These are the same Algonquins who ignored demands for an environmental assessment before they began to build a community centre on Crown land at Pine Lake.
The natives no longer have credibility as environmental stewards.

The government of Ontario, which regulates mining in the province, similarly seems to be trying to grab ethical high ground to which it has no claim. At a time when confrontations at Caledonia and Deseronto have made us aware of how charged these disputes can become, you'd think a bureaucrat wouldn't need a regulation to understand the need to consult natives when a prospector expresses interest in minerals on disputed land.

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